Drama, adventure, and family struggles abound as three generations head west on the Oregon Trail.
Love is more powerful than the fiercest tragedy.
A Light in the Wilderness is a story of grace and courage in a time of trial. WILLA award winner.
A caregiver’s journey.
Contains A Mother’s Cry from The Midwife’s Legacy
Read about Jane's milestone of achieving One Million books in print.
Based on an 1852 diary entry made on the Oregon Trail. “Today we met eleven wagons headed back east, all driven by women their men having died and been buried on the trail.” Three novels that explore the lives of these women as they deal with the wilderness places of their lives.
For Madison "Mazy" Bacon, a young wife living in southern Wisconsin, the future appears every bit as promising as it is reassuringly predictable. A loving marriage, a well-organized home, the pleasure of planting an early spring garden--these are the carefully-tended dreams that sustain her heart and nourish her soul.
But when her husband of two years sells the homestead and informs her that they are heading west, Mazy's life is ripped down the middle like a poorly mended sheet forgotten in a midwestern storm. Her love is tried, her boundaries stretched, and the fabric of her faith tested. At the same time, she and eleven extraordinary women are pulled toward an uncertain destiny--one that binds them together through reluctance and longing and into acceptance and renewal.
Based on an actual 1852 Oregon Trail incident, All Together in One Place, Book One in the Kinship and Courage series, speaks to the strength in every woman and celebrates the promise of hope that unfailingly blooms amidst tragedy and challenge.
When blind and widowed Suzanne Cullver reaches California with a group of women who have survived tragedy on the Oregon Trail, she sets her mind on doing for herself all that must be done. Though she cannot see, she rejects offers of assistance, unwittingly risking her children’s safety – and her own.
Her companions blindly falter as well, held hostage by their own pasts. As Suzanne attempts to control her life in Shasta City, Ruth defends against past errors, failing to see how she limits love. Meanwhile, Mazy’s vision seems to be permanently clouded by her late husband’ s betrayal. But when a young stagedriver risks all for a Wintu Indian, his life becomes entangled with the turnaround women – and together they are changed forever as they discover that No Eye Can See all the good God has in store for those who love Him.(2001)
A CIRCLE OF COURAGEOUS WOMEN DISCOVERS THE MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE, FORGIVENESS, AND LOVE Ruth Martin had a dream: to become an independent woman and build a life in southern Oregon for herself and her children. But when her friend Mazy’s inaction results in a tragedy that shatters Ruth’s dream, Ruth must start anew and try to heal her tender wounds.
Her friends are also moving on. Mazy wrestles with her understanding of what faith and family really mean; Tipton discovers that marriage requires more than she’s ready to give; and Suzanne’s challenge is to keep seeing with new eyes. Together, the turn around women travel to arenas of untested promise where they’ll find a hope that sustains them and relationships they’ll cherish all their days. (2001)
All Together in One Place , book one, was a finalist for Reader’s Choice Awards.
"The women...become more and more familiar until they seem like friends--friends you grow to love despite their faults." --Crescent Blues Book Reviews
“Jane Kirkpatrick has, almost literally, created her own genre of fiction. Her books enfold…whisper, ‘Let me tell you about a woman who…’ They find a secret place in each of us and bring it gently to the surface.”–Salem Statesman Journal
Christian novelist Kirkpatrick follows her well-received All Together in One Place with this rich and engaging sequel that could easily stand alone. She picks up the story of 11 women who have banded together to travel west on the Oregon Trail after losing their menfolk. Kirkpatrick's gifts as a writer are most evident in the surprising complexity of her female characters and in her ability to weave historical details into her story without overwhelming it. The fascinating moments of daily routine on the trail and in California's mining towns fit effortlessly with the plot and include the varying experiences of different races (Chinese and Indian) as well as of men and women. The author brings her heroines alive with full complements of both endearing and frustrating qualities, keeping them on even footing with each other and leaving the reader unsure what they might do next. Kirkpatrick is convincingly insightful about the conflicting emotions these women experience during dramatic life changes, allowing them to struggle, change their minds, make mistakes and start over on different tracks. -- Publishers Weekly
“Kirkpatrick follows her well-received All Together in One Place with this rich and engaging sequel [No Eye Can See] that could easily stand alone…a thoughtful exploration of human character and community.” –Publishers Weekly
In 1852, Ezra Meeker, in his diary, spoke of meeting wagons of women on the Oregon Trail whose men folk had all died. As I shared the terrible disaster with them, my women friends would speculate with me and gasp. My male friends looked at me like a deer in the headlight and said "Who would want to read a book about all the men dying?" I thought long and hard before proposing this series to my publisher.
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"Jane, you were a wonderful presenter and writer’s friend at the recent Northwest Christian Writers Renewal.
The evaluations were unanimous that you hit all the right notes and nourished the spirits of our conferees."
Clint Kelly,
Program Coordinator
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